


Are you sure you wanna play this game?

by Some_Impossible_Fairytale



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Aftermath of Violence, F/M, Mild Language, POV Third Person, Queen Caroline is Queen, Torture, don't mess with the mikaelsons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 19:58:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15150722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Some_Impossible_Fairytale/pseuds/Some_Impossible_Fairytale
Summary: Some vampires decide that to get to the King you have to first take down the Queen. But Caroline Forbes has had more than a few lessons in chess.





	Are you sure you wanna play this game?

To be short and sweet about it, Eric was having a particularly shitty night. The hunt had been a complete bust, it was pissing it down with rain, he was starving, and now to top it all off, Pepper had disappeared like the morning mist, leaving him to walk back to the nest alone. Being a vampire isn’t as easy as it used to be.

True, he’s not that old, only 25 and he was 25 when he was turned, so he’s lived out the exact amount of time in this life as he did in the one before. Being supernatural now, he should have seen the strange symmetry for what it was. Meaning that when he’d kicked open the door to the abandoned blood bank that they’d taken over a year ago (now empty of all blood, because having a housewarming gorge had  _not_  been the best idea) to see the place covered in vampires, he should have known things were all about to go to shit.

There’s vampires everywhere, inhabiting every patch of shadow available. At first glance he’d assumed it was a party, probably Sue’s idea because after Marcel stopped his tourist food buffet parties for the nightwalkers, she’d been dying to keep the party from ending. But this is a lot even for Sue. Actually, he hasn’t seen one person he knows yet. What the actual hell is going on? As he shuffles through the crowds, Eric’s spidey sense goes from tingling to full on electrolysis.

This is no party.

The whispering has an acidic edge to it, a hissing that reminds him exactly of the snake pit in the  _Ark of the Covenant._ Because now he can  _see._

There’s a girl chained up in the middle of the floor.

She’s blonde, he can see that straight away, hair a golden halo in the darkened atmosphere, but slumped double so that her face is hidden. Focusing his hearing, Eric waits for the heartbeat. None comes. Just gentle inhalation of the hundred or so vampires crammed into the room breathing.

_I repeat. What the actual hell?_

There’s no way one girl could feed a hundred vampires. As he watches, there’s a snarl of pain and the girl twitches, manacles crunching as she shifts on the floor.

She’s still alive.

“Eric!” The sudden exclamation has him spinning around, looking for the thread of familiarity in a scene he no longer recognises. Pepper materialises in his arms, that enchanting vibration of raven dark hair and those unique eyes staring up at him brightly in the darkness. Like Tiger’s Eye, he always thought.

“Where’ve you been?”

But before he can he even retort that he was late getting back because he was out looking for her, Pepper presses on “I came back as soon as I heard! Isn’t it amazing?! I can’t believe we’re finally gunna get our voices heard, take the Original Bastard down a peg. Can you see her?” Pepper whips round, craning her beautiful neck before clapping her hands like a little girl and beaming up at him.

Ah. So that’s what this is. Another scheme to get back at the King of New Orleans. Ever since Marcel relinquished his crown back to his father, Sue and the others have been chomping at the bit. Oh, Klaus does everything Marcel did, just less frequently. And if you’re not a major player like Vincent then to Klaus you’re just a pawn to move round the board as he bids you.

It’s upset a few people to say the least.

Wait a sec,  _take the Original Bastard down a peg._

She’s blonde.

Blonde. Girl. Klaus.

“ _Fuck_ ” Eric shoves Pepper away, vamping towards the wide berth that the captive’s been given in the pool of light they’ve awarded her, to highlight their success.

Fucking  _morons._

Sue is stood there, stiff but smiling in her ancient leather jacket like she’s the bees knees because of course she thinks she’s won.

Stepping as close as he can get, Eric drops to his knees next to the blonde. Sue growls a warning but Eric snarls back, deeper because he’s angrier after all and keeps moving. She’s a jumped up little nine year old. No match even for him and she knows it.

“Hey, hey” he murmurs, desperately trying to get the other vampire to look up. She’s makes a disgusted sound but it works because she lifts her head to glare sleepily at him.

The pit falls out of Eric’s stomach.

It’s her.

“You took  _Caroline Forbes?!”_ Eric asks, voice rising with his six foot frame as he stands upright. The mate, the world acknowledged better half of Klaus-evil-as-it-gets-Mikaelson is chained up in their foyer.

Eric considers chucking his daylight ring then and there. Frying is a better death than Klaus Mikaelson.

His eyes find Sue, who’s positively glowing, the stupid,  **stupid**  bitch. “The one. The only. You should have seen it Eric. It was ridiculously easy. She was out shopping in the Quarter at that witch’s shop. You know, Thierry’s girl? Didn’t even have that bodyguard, St. John of hers with her.”

Enzo. Enzo’s always been a decent bloke, plays the piano when he and Thierry get together for a song or two on a Thursday sometimes. Good taste.  And whilst Eric’s never met Caroline, too low down to be admitted to the Queen’s circle, he’s heard nice things. Good things. Things worth standing up and being counted for.

“How?” Eric asks though he finds he doesn’t even really care. Caroline’s meant to be at least thirty now. There’s not a vampire here over that, so whatever they’ve done to get her here, he’s pretty sure he’s safer off not knowing.

Whatever Sue starts rambling about, looking left and right in proud recognition of her cronies efforts she certainly wasn’t expecting Eric to bark out “Let her go. Let her go now, Sue and we might all live to see the next sunrise”

Eric looks past Sue to Pepper, beautiful, gullible Pepper. If she had any part in this he won’t be able to save her.

Sue scoffs and he hates her with every part of his being for the pure idiocy she’s demonstrating. “You always did suck at poker Eric, no matter how pretty you are underneath that leather jacket.” Because apparently Sue is that petty to resent him when it comes down to the fact that he actually buys designer rather than trying to look old enough to know Dracula or some shit.

“She is the best bargaining chip we could ever ask for. One look at her and Klaus will give us anything we want”

Eric’s mouth’s hanging open now. His eyes flit left and right trying to gauge everyone else’s reactions but quite a few of them are nodding, or scared enough of Sue not to speak up.

“ _Are you high?”_  Eric jabs a finger back at Caroline, where she’s curled on the floor. “One look at her and that will be the last thing any of us see. The one rule, the one rule of the Quarter is that Caroline Forbes, Klaus’s fucking girlfriend-“

There’s a hacking cough from the floor where the lady herself is sat. “I’m sorry?” Eric asks, brow furrowing, he was sure she’d said-

“Wife” Caroline repeats.

“Oh. Congratulations.”

“His wife” Eric amends like it’s a perfectly honest mistake rather than the final goddamn nail in the coffin that it actually is “is out of bounds”

Sue smiles so that her teeth gleam in the lowlight. Claudette and Ric, her two favourite progeny move to shoulder her.

It suddenly becomes very apparent how alone Eric and Caroline are in this.

“Do I look like an outta bounds kinda girl?” Sue shoots back before she strikes, throwing a well aimed kick to his sternum strong enough that it sends Eric bowling backwards across the room like a caber, vampires streaking out of the line of fire before he crashes into the makeshift bar.

Caroline watches Eric disappear into the shards of wood, eyes lingering sympathetically at her defender before zeroing straight back in on the bitch who did this. Sue he’d called her.  Caroline doesn’t really know who Sue is, and after this evening she  _really_  doesn’t care but anyone with that horrendous sense of style deserves it on principle. As Rebekah would say. Plus, Caroline’s a lot older now than the girly little Caroline who lived in Mystic Falls.  Not only that but this Caroline is a Mikaelson. And let’s be honest, in terms of evil bitches, she’s seen bigger.

So safe to say, she’s pissed.

“He’s right. Let me go and we’ll say no more about it” Klaus still doesn’t tell Caroline an awful lot, but that’s because he wants her to enjoy her immortality not be bogged down with what he refers to as ‘matters of state’

As much as she loves him, he’s still a bit of a pretentious tosser at times.

“I’ll speak to Klaus for you. Get him to come around”

Sue leans down so that her face is directly in front of Caroline. “Thing is, Your Majesty, I don’t want Klaus to come around. I want the bastard gone”

The blow, when it comes, makes Caroline’s head snap round, though it isn’t enough to break her neck.

Caroline spits till her mouth is once again clear, with a cough that turns into a laugh the more she thinks about it. She grins, a harsh, glittering thing and shakes her hair out of her eyes, shifting to sit up on her knees on the floor before she speaks. “Are you sure you wanna play this game?”

From the wideness of Sue’s eyes she wasn’t expecting that. Good. Caroline’s always loved surprising people. Once upon a time, Caroline had hated people underestimating her. Now she sees it for the advantage it is.

Even if it sometimes means playing for time.

“Because I assure you, you’ve lost” Klaus’ voice rings out across the room. Sue along with every other vampire in the room turns to the source of the noise. Caroline smiles, a curve of the lips soft and sweet and  despite the pain, feels her shoulders relax. Eric, whose finally retrieved himself from the wreckage, and jolted back to Caroline, can’t really remember the last time he saw someone smile like that. It wasn’t relief, not really, at being rescued. More like a confirmation of faith.

He never thought he’s see someone smiling like that at the golden hue of the Hybrid’s eyes either.

“We’ve come for the girl” Elijah announces, jumping down from the window that they’d entered from easily, as if he was just stepping off the sidewalk. “Give her to us and –“

“We’ll leave it there” Enzo interrupts, as only Enzo would, slipping out of Elijah’s restrictive reach, lest he promise a mercy that Klaus would never give.  _Nor would Enzo_ , Eric thinks from conversations past,  _where Caroline is concerned_. She’s more than his Queen, his best friend, she’s his sister.

Enzo’s swagger has disappeared as he scurries over to where Caroline is twisted on the ground, trying to free herself from the bounds. Even from his proximity hovering nearby (he’s noticed how quickly the rest of the party goers have given Caroline a wide berth than a few minutes ago) Eric only catches a few words “Gorgeous….what’ve they done….never should have let you…. _he_ should try stopping you once in a while”

As Eric watches, Enzo grips the vervain soaked manacles with a growl and after a grunt rips them away. “Come on” he soothes, helping her to her feet. “Let’s get you home” Caroline rolls her eyes at his tenderness, but lets Enzo wrap his arm around her and begin to lead her towards the door. It’s as if the vampires surrounding them aren’t even there.

They might as well not be, they melt away like the Red Sea.

“Lorenzo. Wait” Elijah stops the man in question with a hand on the shoulder before slipping out of his coat and wrapping it around Caroline. Enzo nods once, mouth set in a grim line, hands wrapped unwaveringly around Caroline. In turn, she’s gripping back but murmuring so softly that even with supernatural hearing, Eric can’t make it out. As if she’s reassuring Enzo rather than the other way around.  _Christ._

Eric twists the lump of lapis lazuli round his finger irritatedly. It would be quicker.

Seeing Caroline safely out of the way, Elijah turns to Klaus, posture immediately relaxed, almost as if he’s turning round in the queue at Starbucks to ask what Klaus’ order is. Klaus on the other hand hasn’t backed down. Eric’s always been pretty happy with his height at just shy of 6”5 but with the Mikaelsons in front of him he feels like Bilbo staring straight at Smaug. Klaus, who snaps immediately “If you even think of giving your word brother, I have a coffin with your name on it and I will be adding a gravestone on top of that”

Elijah just sighs. “Rebekah will be upset”

Klaus’ head drops, looking almost up at his elder brother with an almost believable pout if it wasn’t for the spark of chaos in his eyes. “I know. She  **does** love to set things on fire”

The vampires around them let out a collective hiss as the announcement echoes around the room, evidently considering mounting a last ditch effort. If they rush the siblings, some of them might survive. But Eric cannot stop watching Caroline, golden hair still shining like a beacon, the last ray of a lighthouse as the ship goes down. She keeps twisting in Enzo’s arms, trying to look back despite the older vampire’s best efforts.

“Well” Eric’s head whips round, back to Klaus, to find that the King was also watching Caroline’s retreat. Now that she’s nearly out, he must have deemed it time to get down to business. “I applaud your decision to pursue democracy, despite your methods.” Klaus’ teeth begin to gleam “So let’s do this at random. Beginning with, eeny, meeny, miny…” Klaus’s finger danced about the room until it was pointing directly at Eric’s chest.  “Mo”

It makes sense in a strange, fucking ironic sort of way. He had been the closest to Caroline when the men had broken in, it wasn’t like it was a far cry to imagine that he had been her captor rather than someone trying to save her.

Eric finds that at the final moment, he’s not thinking about Caroline, or the gold of his death’s eyes, or even Pepper but of Cheryl and his nieces, who he was going to have to compel soon anyway, to understand why their uncle never aged.

_Cheryl._

“No! Not him. Not Eric”

Opening his eyes again, Eric finds a different gold blocking out his view. Rather than the molten gold of Klaus wolf, there’s a ragged crumple of blonde curls defiantly glaring up at Klaus, Caroline’s arms spread wide, keeping him behind her. He’s surprised she even took notice of his name. A mouse in front of a lion.

The murderous snarl drops instantly from Klaus face, his focus entirely on his wife. The glint of silver bands and a diamond to shame the Koh-I-Noor on curled fists.

“Sweetheart-“

Caroline’s curls quake angrily. Klaus’ mouth closed.

A mouse in front of a lion.

“Hmm. A Queen’s pardon. Lucky boy” Klaus congratulates Eric, and this time when Klaus’ hand points in his direction, it’s in the shape of an open palm. Eric takes the hand and shakes it as firmly and as fast as he can, wondering exactly whose blood he drank this morning.

Enzo’s smiling at him, a smile so similar to the one Caroline had given at the appearance of her family that he wonders that they’re not related after all. Klaus steps to one side, very deliberately letting them past.

And that’s how Eric ended up walking into the Compound, drenched in sunlight. When he was younger, Eric remembers stories of Gods and heroes and how mortals who recognised the Gods for what they were, when others did not, would be spared. Even rewarded.

And now he knows that all the old stories are true.


End file.
